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The first author re-entered the middle grades classroom to teach a new National Science Foundation (NSF) physical science curriculum that was designed to foster conceptual change through a scientific approach. The curriculum design met the need and call for reform in science education through its focus on inquiry, evidence-based reasoning, peer collaboration, and deeper understanding of important concepts in a science discipline. Lessons followed a learning cycle of activities for knowledge construction. As a self-study, the first author as teacher sought to learn about his beliefs and abilities in practice while enacting and adjusting the curriculum design. The second author helped in this reflective practice through visiting the first author’s classroom for periodic observations, interviews, and discussions about the implementation of this curriculum. Four videotaped lessons and instructional artifacts demonstrate that the teacher enacted the curriculum with high fidelity to its prescribed inquiries and learning cycle format with only minor changes. Instructional design modifications were made in practice to assist lower achieving students meet its high academic challenge of analytical thinking. The merits of the prescribed curriculum for promoting deductive scientific thinking are detailed alongside instructional design decisions emanating from the curriculums’ academic rigor and limitations in connecting to adolescent interest and choice. This case details one example of a teacher who intended to faithfully implement a reform-based science curriculum, realizing along the way, that design changes were warranted to meet the educative and emotional needs of students in a particular context.

A case study of an exemplary third grade teacher’s use of the outdoor classroom for meeting both state science and language arts standards is described. Data from the researcher’s field journal, teacher lesson plans, and teacher interviews document how this teacher used nature-study to bridge outdoor classroom experiences with the state science and language arts curriculum. This teacher’s early life experiences supported her strong interest in science and nature in the outdoors and experiencing it with her children. Children interacted with the outdoor classroom throughout the day as a context for science and literacy learning. All but one child successfully met Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) goals in reading at the end of the school year.

A science teacher educator returned to teaching adolescents after more than 10 years in the professoriate. We studied his beliefs, practice and daily use of inquiry pedagogy while implementing a reform-based curriculum. Reflection on practice was evidenced by a weekly journal, classroom observations and debriefings, and extensive interviews. Newly developed practical knowledge from this experience shifted the science teacher educator’s beliefs away from the Piagetian structuralism espoused in prescribed curricula towards a more culturally responsive, student-driven approach to teaching science to middle grades students. The merits and limitations of curricula attempting to follow traditional scientific practices are discussed.

Dispositions supporting the teaching of science as structured inquiry by four elementary candidates are presented. Candidates were studied during student teaching based on their positive attitudes toward teaching science with reform-based materials in their methods course. Personal learning histories informed their attitudes, values, and beliefs about the teaching and learning of science through structured inquiry. Supportive dispositions included curiosity and questioning, investigating first-hand, learning together, and active learning. These dispositions supported early science teaching despite candidates limited science content knowledge, and may contribute to candidates’ further learning of science.

The authors investigated teacher and student perspectives on the motivation of high school students in differently tracked science courses. Participants were 2 highly motivational teachers who took part in interviews and classroom observations focusing on motivational strategies in their science classes. Student participants from each teacher's class were given a Likert-type survey on their views about motivation in science. Effective strategies in the higher tracked classroom included incorporating enthusiasm into presentations, promoting a nonthreatening class atmosphere, and connecting the adolescent world to science. In the lower tracked classroom, effective strategies included encouraging dialogue, using practical applications, building self-confidence, and using hands-on inquiry activities. The authors discuss implications for science teachers and for increasing all students' engagement and interest in science.

Individual recommendation plans (IRP) for student teaching practice were co-constructed with two methods students based on the select application of National Science Teachers Association’s National Standards for Science Teacher Preparation. Methods students completed a resume, an interview on pedagogical preferences, and a learning styles survey to determine the reform-based standards and pedagogical approaches that better fit their personal histories and identity formation as science teachers. Each case was unique with one student better meeting the Standards of “Issues” and “Science in the Community” and the other student better meeting the standards of “Inquiry” and the “Nature of Science”. Student teachers planned and taught lessons based on their IRP and were mostly successful in meeting their prescribed standards and utilizing their preferred pedagogies. However, their success in use of specific strategies supporting their approach was highly dependent upon classroom context. The use of the IRP process as a reflective tool strengthening identity formation and early practice is discussed.

A new National Science Foundation supported curriculum, Interactions in Physical Science™, was evaluated on students’ conceptual change in the twelve concept areas of the national physical science content standard (B) for grades 5–8. Eighth grade students (N=66) were evaluated pre and post on a 31-item multiple-choice test of conceptual understanding developed by the Harvard -Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Significant student gains (p

Middle grades science teachers need professional support in practice as they implement new inquiry-based science. Professional development schools can provide this bottom-up support through connecting preservice and inservice teacher education programs in classroom practice. In this study, coteaching arrangements with secondary science education majors provided additional teachers in the classroom to support a materials-rich curriculum and the needed associated pedagogies. Science education majors provided needed assistance in troubleshooting difficulties with the new curriculum. They also provided needed content knowledge to support inquiry, along with creating moments and space for teachers to reflect on inquiry practice. Ongoing assistance by preservice teachers allowed inservice teachers to progress from logistical concerns in implementing kit curriculum to concerns regarding student learning and the supporting professional development.

Two elementary certified middle school science teachers are studied for changes in practical knowledge supporting the implementation of kit-based inquiry as part of a schoolwide reform effort. Emphasis is placed on studying how these two pilot teachers enact guided inquiry within their unique pedagogical and curricular interests, and what adaptations they make in their use of Science and Technology for Children™ and Science and Technology Concepts for Middle School™ curriculum. Case study results support the notion that reform is complex and personal, and teachers as professionals need collective and individual support in the classroom as they make incremental changes in practice toward becoming inquiry-oriented teachers. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed91:492–513, 2007

Secondary science methods students' thinking on coteaching practice was studied for the development of conscious elements of practical teacher knowledge supporting the use of structured inquiry. Reflective dialogue on practice in an electronic forum was analyzed for elements of formal learning and biography (past and present) that informed thinking on practice. Changes in thinking over time were considered in light of observed practice, including methods students' thinking about inquiry through use of STC curriculum. Three concepts related to experience in learning to teach in this model emerged from the data: (a) movement from cultural acclimation to reflection on inquiry practice, (b) thinking through past educational knowledge and experience, and (c) integrating knowledge and experience in practice. Discussion highlights the integration of formal knowledge, biography, and peripheral participation with development of “knowledge of students'' in learning to teach in this model. Implications for preservice teacher education highlight the important aspects of learning to teach in practice in order to begin developing practical teacher knowledge for teaching using structured inquiry. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed89:470–491, 2005

Coteaching as a form of situated learning supports early induction into science teaching. A coteaching model for secondary science methods students and what has been learned from this model is described. Secondary science methods students in pairs were placed with a science teacher to begin teaching as peripheral participants. A cooperative inquiry method was used to study this model. In-depth learning about the model and how to make it work effectively came from a process of “research cycling” over multiple semesters. This learning has been put in practical form as a primer for cooperating teachers and methods students participating in coteaching. Constraints and limitations of this coteaching model are discussed.

A situated learning model of coteaching was implemented in the weekly field component of a secondary science methods course. Students cotaught by observing and assisting their teacher for one period followed by taking the lead in teaching the same lesson with their teachers' assistance during the following period. Students were peripheral participants, reflecting on both their teacher's practice and their own practice. Data supported four positive outcomes of this model for the methods students: (a) comfort in learning to teach, (b) critical reflection in modeling the teacher's lesson, (c) development of confidence in teaching and managing students, and (d) positive effect of seeing and doing inquiry in practice. All participants supported the continued practice of teaching from the classroom teachers' existing lesson plans. Future research is suggested on how real-time teacher assistance during this model could help the methods students acquire the teaching strategies and habits of their teacher.

This paper is a narrative of the induction of two middle school science teachers as partners in a job sharing arrangement. The partners began paired teaching in lieu of student teaching. The author retells the women's story of how they worked together, supporting each other in attempting to implement student-centered practices. His past experiences as a beginning science teacher guided his understanding of their story. Their mutual support in this story is likened to partners in a marriage. These two women mentored each other through the difficulties of their first year through ongoing dialogue on practice, supportive assistance, and modeling.

This paper examines the influence of personal histories on the formation of early role identity as inquiry-oriented science teachers. Two cases selected from a multicase study of 12 secondary science student teachers are used to illustrate the development of inquiry orientation. These cases represent two extremes in a continuum ranging from didactic practice to successful use of structured inquiry. The role of learners' personal histories on their teaching identity development and implications for preparing inquiry-based science teachers are discussed. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed86:401–416, 2002; Published online in Wiley Interscience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/sce.10020

Career choice and retention of nineteen secondary science education graduates were studied using a biographical approach. Autobiographical papers written as preservice teachers and rewritten as career teachers were compared for intrinsic reasons for vocational choice. Comparisons were made between early vocation teachers and those who chose science teaching later in their higher education studies. Participants beginning college as science education majors wanted to teach for student learning and to shape their students' lives. Participants beginning college as science majors wanted to continue learning science while also enhancing their students' science literacy. Ten participants' data from both groups showed great similarities in self as teacher across autobiographical papers. Teaching for impact on students appeared to support retention in this study. Implications for development and potential retention of future science teachers are discussed.

Most of the professors contributing to this book had spent several years away from teaching children and adolescents, and they yearned to return to K-12 teaching to prove to themselves that they could (still) be effective teachers of youth. They could not move forward as credible people of reform and reform-based practices without putting into practice with K-12 students what they espoused as science educators. The preservice and in-service teachers with whom they worked needed to know, for example, that inquiry learning could be supported in the context of their schools and with their students (Lunenberg et al. 2007). By teaching again, they also aspired to updating and strengthening knowledge and skills in practice, practical knowledge for leading productive learning environments for science (Van Driel et al. 2001). Most of the contributing authors sought to regain credibility with fresh experiences teaching youth of diverse backgrounds and in schools with twenty-first-century technology and high-stakes testing. More boldly, a few ventured into teaching science for the first time, working with learners in grades below their prior teaching experience.

Few science teacher educators take the plunge into full-time K-12 classroom teaching again while on sabbatical leave from their college or university. Dr. Charles Eick did just that and shares his experience in preparing for classroom teaching again and what he learned about himself and teaching in implementing a new reform-based curriculum to eighth graders. He approaches his story of teaching physical science from the perspective of building on his personal practical knowledge as a progressive teacher from 10 years ago for today’s twenty-first-century science classroom. Technology became a primary vehicle for teaching and learning a new curriculum through guided inquiry. His blend of new techniques learned in professional development with those from his past teaching experiences created a new learning environment. His new emphasis on inquiry for learning through conceptual change often excluded his past practical knowledge of other effective science teaching approaches based on the learning cycle. What he learns and relearns in authentic practice using guided inquiry adds great credibility to his teaching, research, and outreach today.